Well, almost. But it might as well be a week. Scouring the internet, I’ve seen mostly universal praise for Legion. From my experiences in the beta, I had a huge suspicion that the expansion would be a massive shot of adrenaline into the game. There’s no numbers in terms of subscriptions (or active accounts), but optimistically, maybe 10 million?
Although, it’s still too early to say. The expansion launch bump always produces a huge number of subscribers and then inevitable drops off overtime before stabilizing. We’re also entering the school year again. Who knows if the numbers and reception will continue to hold for the next half a year?
Progress
In terms of character progress, I rocketed to level 110 with a disappointing time of 12 hours, 40 minutes. I was thwarted in the final hour with some PvP shenanigans. That’s okay though, as I was first in guild by a long run. If you’re trying to make a statement about yourself as a player to a new guild, one way to do that is by being the first to 110, jumping into dungeons, and filling the guild activity with achievements on clearing normals and heroics.
Mythic dungeons are brutal for Holy Priests. At least, that was my impression initially just because on everyone’s lack of gear. I think it’s mathematically possible to walk into a Mythic dungeon just shy of 820 ilevel but you need some consumables to help prop your stats up for a bit.
I did get my first legendary: X’anshi, Shroud of Archbishop Benedictus. It’s not exactly the best cloak for raiders as the effect is counterintuitive to strong play. But in mythic dungeons, it’s saved me a few times and provided the group with a second chance to last just long enough to get the encounter down.
Right now I’m sitting at 841 ilevel since Friday. There’s still some trinkets that I need to pursue, but for the most part, my Priest is now raid ready. Unlike other players, I’ve pursued a path of parallel progression between my Holy and Shadow artifacts to allow for flexibility in my roles.
My guild wants me to play Shadow but acknowledged my flexibility in being Holy and Disc. I’m not 100% confident in my DPS play right now. There’s that looming thought in the back of my mind that I might not make that cut or the benchmark. If that happens, I’ll cut myself from the roster and look for a team that can better utilize my abilities. Still, the raid is a few weeks out so I’ve got some time.
How long did it take for you to be in a guild before you went, “Yup, this is the one.” ?
Patch 7.1
At PAX Prime over the weekend, Blizzard developers were on hand to reveal more details on patch 7.1. The big surprise was the new Legion companion app which lets us run missions right out of our phone. Plus it has the side benefit of displaying currently available world quests.
Boy, this app would’ve been handy during Warlords when we had way more missions to do. Right now, we’re capped to 5 followers and most missions take three followers (usually two named followers and one of your recruits).
Regarding the patch, there seems to be a perception that the new Trial of Valor is a new tier of raiding. Actually, it’s not quite the case. The best analogy is that Trial of Valor is similar to the old vanilla raids of Zul’Gurub or Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Both were 20 player raids and were meant to complement the major 40 player raids at the time. The last raid that was even close to that was the old Zul’Aman raid back in Burning Crusade (or a case could be made for Halion in Wrath).
Any bets on when 7.1 is expected to drop? My guess would be a little after BlizzCon (or shortly before Christmas).
Knowledge of the dungeon damage patterns and an experienced tank work wonders for making mythics easier. The difference in incoming damage between various tanks (of the same spec) is like night and day when I queue for heroic satchels.
I could never see myself maining shadow – the high risk/high reward of maintaining VF at high stacks (esp. with StM) is going to give me a heart attack, and I’d be perpetually kicking myself for ‘failing.’ I’m far too self critical for a gcd capped spec as someone who’s much better at proactive planning than execution. I also fear being limited by latency since my server is on the other side of the country.
Stay sane! I’m a big believer in playing to your strengths and playing what you enjoy. That and performance tend to go hand in hand for me.
I haven’t found a set amount of time or playing together that gives me the “ah, yes, this guild’s the one” feeling. The feeling just is there all of a sudden. I’m settled into my new gnomey guild and loving it. New expansion, new guild, new POV.
Anexxia Gnomes? Like… all gnomes? What atrocity is this!
I think it took me less than a few days to realise I found a guild that I absolutely adore. I’ve been with them since MOP times and I don’t think I’d want to find another guild.
With guild mates that have turned into real life friends as well as playmates, it makes WoW just that bit more special 🙂